As former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown became a New Hampshire resident and formed a committee to explore challenge U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen later this year, Shaheen was pulling in the campaign cash.

The first three months of 2014 ended up being the best fundraising period yet for Shaheen since she entered in the Senate 5 1/2 years ago. During that period, her campaign raised $1.538 million, leaving her with $4.35 million cash on hand in her bank account.

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These numbers are being released the same day that Brown will drop his exploratory efforts and formally enter the race to challenge her. While these numbers show Brown is already more than $4 million behind, money is not supposed to be a problem for Brown who raised more than $28 million in his re-election bid in 2012 in Massachusetts.

The Shaheen campaign claims when they file their report next week they will show donations from 26,689 donors, which they say is an increase of more than 12,000 donors from the last three months of 2013. Some 96 percent of these contributions were from donors who have given less than $250.

"Our campaign is proud of all the grassroots support our campaign has generated to date and we're confident we'll have the resources we'll need to win this November, regardless of whom Republicans nominate to run against Jeanne Shaheen," said Shaheen spokesman Harrell Kirstein.

In total, Shaheen's campaign has raised $7.3 million this cycle.

This U.S. Senate race is expected to be the most expensive in New Hampshire history.